Avatar

At the risk of turning this blog into a platform for film reviews, I watched Avatar with a couple of friends last week. It’s the best film I’ve seen this year – just stunning.

The special effects are amazing – it was almost impossible to tell where live action ended and CGI began but unlike many films of this kind, the action is not the strongest aspect. For me, the film is all about the plot.

On Pandora, just over 4 light years from earth, humans are using military might and industrial greed to destroy a planet in order to mine its natural resources. Sound familiar? The hero, Jake Sully, discovers the beauty of the planet and its humanoid inhabitants, the Na’vi, and is forced to make a choice. He can help them and save the planet or he can obey orders and help destroy it. Jake makes a good choice.

It got me thinking about our own planet again though. About our own relentless destruction of vast swathes of different environments in a relentless pursuit of power and wealth. About our own destruction of so many forms of life that we could have saved. And while I am confident about the end of our own earth’s story I think that we too have a lot of choices to make in the environmental debate.

Avatar was a helpful reminder to me of the importance of those choices.